DORSET'S Police and Crime commissioner has admitted that his force has its own version of AC-12 – the fictional undercover team from the BBC's smash hit Line of Duty, whose job is to investigate corrupt officers and police staff.

“Sadly some police officers are corrupt," said Martyn Underhill.

"I’ve never met our own officers, I never would - they are completely covert and I have nothing to do with them, but they do exist in Dorset.”

Mr Underhill was speaking after the publication of a hard-hitting report from the National Crime Agency, which claims that Serious Organised Crime (SOC) of the type portrayed in Line of Duty is costing every family in the UK £2,000 a year.

Mr Underhill's office says SOC includes trafficking in people, drugs, illicit goods and weapons, armed robbery, counterfeiting and money laundering.

“With revenues estimated in the billions, their criminal enterprises closely resemble those of legitimate international businesses,” it said.

“They have operating models, long-term strategies, hierarchies, and even strategic alliances, all serving the same purpose: to generate the most profits with the least amount of risk.”

Mr Underhill said he needed to get across a message to people who 'don't believe this happens in Dorset'.

"We are affected by all types of organised crime,” he said. “Every type of organised crime infiltrates this county. For instance we’ve had a massive upsurge in Dorset of human trafficking allegations.”

He said the county had seen honour crimes in Dorset this year as well as allegations of FGM. “When I meet the public they say things like this don’t happen here. Well, they do.”

He said the warning signs about SOC in the UK have been there "for years".

“In the last three years we have seen knife crime explode crime across the board. Fraud is unchecked, organised crime is unchecked and that’s because of lack of investment in policing across the board," he said.

“There’s no doubt at all, whatever part of policing you look at, whether it’s vulnerability, crime rates whether its knife crime, human trafficking, slavery or organised crime it’s all going up and we desperately need more staff across the police to deal with that.”

Mr Underhill’s biggest concern, however, is one highlighted in the NCA’s report – public corruption, which the report said affected professions as diverse as border security guards and public officials.

“The most concerning thing for me is the increase in public corruption because that’s the moral fabric of society,” he said. “We have been one of the most transparent and uncorrupt countries in the world and that’s something that this country has been proud of.

"But when our public corruption starts going up, that is a massive marker that says something urgently.

"That will break society when public corruption increases.”

Tackling all forms of SOC however, requires not just more policing, but help from the public, says Mr Underhill.

"Basically, if something doesn't look right it's probably because it isn't right," he said.

He urged members of the public to call the 101 number or CrimeStoppers on 0800 555 111 if they spotted something they were concerned about.